I spent the day at M’s school yesterday for an early Earth Day celebration. We made “worms in dirt” desserts for the entire school and then served them at lunch. It was a great chance to tell the kids what Earth Day was all about, since they were very interested in why they were getting treats. Today there was a school clean-up that everyone participated in as well.

I think that’s fantastic that you volunteered for Earth Day! A part of me misses volunteering for those special events, but I remember that we were always so rushed that I felt the kids missed out on the point of it. To them, it was just a party. Did you feel like the kids got something out of the activity? Did the kids clean up the outside of the school, the school grounds?

The pudding thing was mostly just a party, but it opened up discussions of what Earth Day is. The cleanup was a much better event. Last Saturday, the school was part of the “Great American Cleanup” so a lot of work was done in cleaning up, planting trees and working on the existing landscaping. Yesterday’s focus was the nature trails. They were cleaned up and now there are buckets with science journals and all sorts of things for teachers to take their classes out and be more interactive rather than the kids just walking and not knowing what to look for.
What was interesting is that on Wednesday, one of the classes sole freeze-pops as a fundraiser and the campus was full of wrappers kids left lying around. When the students got out there to clean up they were angry and really saw the impact of littering and why it’s so important to just find a trash can. While I was not happy to see wrappers all over the ground, it was a great moment to really teach a valuable lesson.

That sounds really great. It sounds like your school made a real effort to focus on the message & involvement, not just the hype surrounding Earth Day. I love that the kids felt that sense of pride & personal responsibility afterwards. Well done!